The Ballad of Agnes

2023

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Inspired by the Hungarian poem János Arany: The Ballad of Agnes, this project provided me with an opportunity to re-discover my own heritage. 

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The poem tells the tragic story of Mistress Agnes who has her husband killed by her lover. Afterwards, she goes mad from the guilt and keeps washing her „blood-stained” sheets that have long been cleaned. The ballad evokes a dark and unsettling atmosphere where the reader can’t help but sympathise with Agnes. Although she is trialled, the judges decide that her insanity is punishment enough for her crimes, while her lover, who was the assailant, is hanged.

 

Originally written in 1853, the poem does not allude to time or location granting the story a feeling of timelessness, a universal experience; something that could happen anywhere, anytime, and to anyone.

 

My aim was to create a costume that represents both Agnes’ and outsiders’ points of view by incorporating the blood stains only Agnes can see- blood that is simultaneously present and invisible.

 

I achieved that with phosphorescent paint: to the naked eye, the costume looks perfectly clean, but in the dark "the blood" appears.